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Review: ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’

Zana Marjanovic in Angelina Jolie's 'In the Land of Blood and Honey'

Angelina Jolie’s debut as a narrative director — she also wrote and shared in producing — follows Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) as she struggles to survive the atrocities committed from 1992-1995 during the Bosnian war. She’s Bosnian, but also a Muslim, and thus has been imprisoned along with thousands of other Muslim women in prison camps run by the Serbians, who are carrying out a program of “ethnic cleansing” (i.e. genocide).

Conditions are horrendous; the woman are raped and brutally beaten on a continuing basis by their Serbian captors, who take delight in gunning down Muslim civilians, including woman and children. Ajla is spared much of the physical torture suffered by her fellow prisoners because of her relationship with Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian soldier who has been placed in charge of the camp.

Ajla and Danijel knew each other before the war, and were in the early stages of romance, but time has passed and circumstances, obviously, have changed dramatically. How will they each adapt? Is there any future for a relationship forged during such incredibly divisive times?

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Peter A. Martin

Raised in Los Angeles repertory movie houses before spending a decade in tiny Manhattan cinemas, Peter Martin has been freely roaming in DFW multiplexes and art houses for most of the 21st Century. Founder and Editor of Dallas Film Now, Peter also serves as Managing Editor for ScreenAnarchy.com and is a contributing writer for Movies.com, Fandango, and other print and online publications. He is a proud member of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Film Critics Association.
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